Scholar Rock Announces the Addition of Srinivas Akkaraju, M.D., Ph.D. to Its Board of Directors
July 26 2022 - 4:30PM
Business Wire
Scholar Rock (NASDAQ: SRRK), a Phase 3 clinical-stage
biopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of serious
diseases in which protein growth factors play a fundamental role,
today announced that Dr. Srinivas Akkaraju, Founder and Managing
General Partner at Samsara BioCapital, has been appointed to
Scholar Rock’s Board of Directors as an independent director.
With over two decades of fundamentals-based, long term
investment experience in the biotechnology sector, Dr. Akkaraju
will add valuable experience and insight to Scholar Rock’s Board of
Directors as the company advances its late stage development
pipeline and also invests in its robust discovery programs.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Akkaraju to Scholar Rock’s Board
of Directors as we continue to expand upon our diverse network of
experienced biotechnology company-builders,” said Nagesh
Mahanthappa, Ph.D., Founding Chief Executive Officer &
President of Scholar Rock. “Dr. Akkaraju’s deep understanding of
our scientific platform, our clinical programs and the complexities
of the biotech capital markets, will be an invaluable addition to
our Board as we work diligently to accelerate our highly innovative
therapeutic candidate for spinal muscular atrophy through its Phase
3 clinical trial and begin planning for our first potential
commercial launch.”
“I have always been passionate about supporting innovation that
has transformative potential for patients and I am inspired by
Scholar Rock’s mission and data-driven approach making use of its
proprietary platform to modulate growth factors in the TGFβ
superfamily to achieve differentiated pharmacology with huge
therapeutic potential,” said Dr. Akkaraju. “I have been closely
following Scholar Rock’s progress over several years, and I am
looking forward to partnering with the Board and the executive
leadership team as we continue advancing the company’s progress
towards improving the current standard of care for a range of
serious diseases.”
In 2017, Dr. Akkaraju founded Samsara BioCapital, where he
currently serves as Managing General Partner. A biotech investment
fund that recently invested in Scholar Rock’s completed registered
direct offering, Samsara is focused on translating cutting-edge
biology into new therapies to treat patients with unmet medical
needs. Prior to Samara, Dr. Akkaraju held key strategic,
leadership, operational, and advisory roles at various venture
capital firms focusing on the biopharmaceutical and life science
industries, including Sofinnova Investment, Inc., New Leaf Venture
Partners, and Panorama Capital, LLC. Prior to co-founding Panorama
Capital in 2005, he served as a Partner with J.P. Morgan Partners
and advised on Business and Corporate Development at Genentech,
Inc.
Dr. Akkaraju received his M.D. and a Ph.D. in Immunology from
Stanford University and his undergraduate degrees in Biochemistry
and Computer Science from Rice University. He also serves as a
director of Chinook Therapeutics, Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Syros
Pharmaceuticals, and Jiya Acquisition Corp. Previously, Dr.
Akkaraju served as a director on the Boards of Seattle Genetics,
Barrier Therapeutics, Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, ZS Pharma, Synageva
Biopharma Corp., aTyr Pharma, and Amarin Corporation plc.
About Scholar Rock
Scholar Rock is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company
focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines
for the treatment of serious diseases in which signaling by protein
growth factors plays a fundamental role. Scholar Rock is creating a
pipeline of novel product candidates with the potential to
transform the lives of patients suffering from a wide range of
serious diseases, including neuromuscular disorders, cancer, and
fibrosis. Scholar Rock’s approach to targeting the molecular
mechanisms of growth factor activation enabled it to develop a
proprietary platform for the discovery and development of
monoclonal antibodies that locally and selectively target these
signaling proteins at the cellular level. By developing product
candidates that act in the disease microenvironment, the Company
intends to avoid the historical challenges associated with
inhibiting growth factors for therapeutic effect. Scholar Rock
believes its focus on biologically validated growth factors may
facilitate a more efficient development path. For more information,
please visit www.ScholarRock.com or follow Scholar Rock on Twitter
(@ScholarRock) and LinkedIn
(https://www.linkedin.com/company/scholar-rock/). Investors and
others should note that we communicate with our investors and the
public using our company website www.scholarrock.com, including,
but not limited to, company disclosures, investor presentations and
FAQs, Securities and Exchange Commission filings, press releases,
public conference call transcripts and webcast transcripts, as well
as on Twitter and LinkedIn. The information that we post on our
website or on Twitter or LinkedIn could be deemed to be material
information. As a result, we encourage investors, the media and
others interested to review the information that we post there on a
regular basis. The contents of our website or social media shall
not be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the
Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
Scholar Rock® is a registered trademark of Scholar Rock,
Inc.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995, including, but not limited to, statements regarding Scholar
Rock’s future expectations, plans and prospects, including without
limitation, Scholar Rock’s expectations regarding its growth,
strategy, and progress and indication selection and development
timing, the ability of any individual to affect the growth,
strategy, and progress of Scholar Rock, and the potential of its
product candidates and proprietary platform. The use of words such
as “may,” “might,” “could,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,”
“anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “project,” “intend,” “future,”
“potential,” or “continue,” and other similar expressions are
intended to identify such forward-looking statements. All such
forward-looking statements are based on management's current
expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks
and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such
forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include,
without limitation, Scholar Rock’s ability to provide the financial
support, resources and expertise necessary to identify and develop
product candidates on the expected timeline, the data generated
from Scholar Rock’s nonclinical and preclinical studies and
clinical trials, and Scholar Rock’s ability to manage expenses and
to obtain additional funding when needed to support its business
activities, as well as those risks more fully discussed in the
section entitled "Risk Factors" in Scholar Rock’s Quarterly Report
on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2022, as well as
discussions of potential risks, uncertainties, and other important
factors in Scholar Rock’s subsequent filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements represent
Scholar Rock’s views only as of today and should not be relied upon
as representing its views as of any subsequent date. All
information in this press release is as of the date of the release,
and Scholar Rock undertakes no duty to update this information
unless required by law.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220726006032/en/
Scholar Rock: Investors Rushmie Nofsinger
Scholar Rock rnofsinger@scholarrock.com ir@scholarrock.com
857-259-5573
Media Ariane Lovell Finn Partners
ariane.lovell@finnpartners.com media@scholarrock.com
917-565-2204
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